Probie
by R.J.North
Summary: Conley had a very unusual childhood. Not many could say they actually ran away from home and joined the circus when they were little. However, Conley did. And she could. However, nothing is ever as simple as that. Conley is reunited with her Sensei, hunted by her brother, and propositioned by a "spy." Her life is now even stranger. Impulse/OC/Blue Beetle
1. Chapter 1

Hello, if you are just finding this story, please also check out my Guidance and Singed series The Phoenix Chronicles. You don't have to, but you'll understand this a lot better. Anyways, please let me know what you think. Also, this will be a love story, like my other YJ series. This one is going to be a Bart/OC/Jaime. Tell me who you think you like better, though they aren't in it yet. I'll be asking that a lot. And I know, most people want to see the characters interact first. They will interact, just not yet. I'm just asking who liked who better.

* * *

><p>Chapter 1<p>

Propositioned

The Russian Bar is a circus act which combines the gymnastic skills of the balance beam, the rebound tempo skills of trampoline and the swing handstands skills of the uneven and parallel bars. The barre (bar) itself is a flexible vaulting pole that is roughly thirteen feet long, typically made of fiberglass. The genre was first created by the Russian artist Alexander Moiseev, who brought his act twice to the International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo, winning the Gold and Silver Clown.

In this act, two porters, "Bottom People," one on each side of the barre, control the car and the movement of the "Flyer ("Top Mounter"), guiding them into tempo swings and transitional aerial moved. The flyer will prepare for the bar's catapult when the porters give a "ready" signal. As the flyer is flung into the air, a good deal of height is required to perform this acrobatic act.

With advancements of highly intricate acrobatic -aerial techniques, two or three poles can be secured together, allowing for a height lift and resulting in more air time. At the present height, areal skills such as triple sault, "full-in, full-out" (double twisting doubles) and Miller (triple twisting double) somersaults are possible.

The Russian Bar act requires acrobats to be highly skilled in tumbling and have experience with trampoline and/or sports acrobats. To perform, the act must collaborate on many levels. Additionally, the act requires not only physical skill, but psychological and communicative skills as well.

Conley had never down gymnastics before, other than when she was working on her martial arts skills. That had been one of her favorite things about martial arts though. Being trained in ninjutsu meant she had to be flexible and fast. Her kicks and hits weren't the strongest, but she was fast, flexible and great on the defensive. Her stamina was very high. She usually toyed and played with her opponent until she tired them out.

Those skills made the Russian Bar exciting and a fun trick to learn when she joined Haly's Circus when she was eleven. Conley would have most likely joined the circus if her family hadn't moved to France in 2010.

Conley's father, Seth Corporal, was in the United States Navy which required him and his family to move all over the world. That was how she became so fluent in so many different languages. The girl had lived in America, Spain, Germany, France, England, China, Japan, India, Brazil, Columbia, Russia and Italy. They never stayed there for very long. She was fluent in English, Spanish, French, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Italian.

After getting upset about leaving her hometown of Basil, Minnesota where the girl had been taking martial arts classes by a man she called Sensei, she excepted the fact that she's be moving and promised herself that she'd continue her training on her own. Sensei seemed to think very highly of her when she informed him about that.

So the Corporal family moved to France.

There, Conley met a boy named Elliot, who quickly became her best friend, despite their many differences. One of those differences was their age. At the time that they met, Conley was eleven and Elliot was thirteen. They also were very different. Conley was American. Elliot was born in France despite having his family also in the Navy. His father worked with Conley's. He was also a tech geek. Conley was an acrobatic fighter. For some reason they clicked though.

It was with Elliot that Conley discovered Haly's International Traveling Circus to begin with. It had been the winter vacation of 2010 on December 22. Elliot had taken Conley to Belgium with him. She remembered that day very well.

She had been having so much fun, especially seeing that new act, the Daring Dangers. When that one guy, she believed his name was Dan, had fallen and they managed to save him, her heart pounded. Never had she seen anything more exciting, well, except for when she first saw Sensei fighting. That was just exhilarating!

She had gone to get a snow cone at one point too. She had run into a very nice girl. She looked like she was a couple years older than Elliot. She looked as if she were feeling terrible and as if there was a lot on her mind. In the end, as the girl coughed, Conley gave her the snow cone, to help with the cough.

Elliot had called the girl then back to the show. The two girls parted ways.

However, Conley remembered her perfectly. It was hard not to remember her with how beautiful she was.

But that had been how Conley was introduced to the circus.

That wasn't exactly how she joined though. It had been later that year when she joined the circus. It all ended up that way because Conley's father, the man she looked up to her whole life and that protected her from her horribly abusive older brother, died. It had been on Christmas Day. They told her family that it was a training accident, but Conley didn't really believe that. Her father and his men were too careful for that.

But as her father was no longer present, the girl no longer had protection from her brother and her drunken mother. Conley packed her thing and left. She stopped at Elliot's to tell him goodbye, but witnessed something that she had never expected nor never knew about.

Elliot's father was abusive. She saw him beating up the thirteen year old boy.

After his father was done, she snuck in to see the boy and told him of her plan and admitted everything about her family and what she had just seen in his. Elliot, sick of what he had to go through at home as well, decided to join the girl. He packed his things – more than what Conley packed due to him being a tech geek and he _insisted_ on bringing his gear – and left with the girl.

It wasn't until New Years Eve that they stumbled upon the circus again in Spain. Jack Haly, the man who owned the circus was hesitant to let them join, but wouldn't allow them to go off and live on their own on the streets. First he had to know what they could do to be able to stay and help with the circus. Elliot became a member of the tech crew while Conley was an acrobat.

They were still in training when they ran into someone Conley never thought she'd see again. Sensei had been seated in the audience. Conley had to wait to go out and talk to him. When the show ended, she rushed out and searched for him. She found him by the concession stand with two other people.

Conley remembered that day just as if it were the yesterday.

xXx

Conley, small as she was, stood in the open as people passed her. It was odd to see such as small girl on her own in a place like the circus. She had been standing over by the concession stand staring at Sensei, trying to figure out if it was really him, despite being very sure that it was him.

One of the guys that he was with noticed the girl staring and said something to Sensei. He turned around and noticed the girl. He stared back at her, confused and analyzing for a moment before he smile and took a step towards her. Seeing that, Conley smiled widely and ran towards him, hugging his tightly.

"Sensei!" she exclaimed.

"Conley! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"In Germany or at the circus?" the girl asked.

"Both?" he said, his green eyes looking down at her in amusement.

"Well, I _live_ at the circus," she explained.

"Wait, what?" he asked, standing up straight. "What about your Dad and France?"

Conley grew quiet and looked down at the ground. "Daddy died."  
>"Oh Conley," he said, kneeling back down. He hugged the girl again. "I'm so sorry. I know how you feel."<p>

The girl pulled back and looked up at him curiously. "You do?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "I lost both of my parents a while ago."

"Now it's just Elliot and me," Conley answered. "We live and work here. We get home schooling too."

"That's great to hear," he admitted.

"What about you?" Conley asked. "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be back in Basil?"

"I don't live there anymore, Conley," he informed her. "And I would appreciate it if you never told anyone we were here, okay?"

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I asked you to," he said.

"Something's wrong," Conley deduced

"No, Conley, nothing's wrong," he said.

"You're lying, Sensei," Conley corrected. Despite only being eleven, she was very smart. She had always been able to tell when people were lying to her. She didn't like it when people did that to her. "I promise I won't tell anyone, Sensei. You know you can trust me."

Sensei stared at the girl for a moment before sighing. "Okay, you were my best student, you know that? You were too good of a student."

"There's no such thing as too good of a student. Just dedicated pupils," Conley corrected.

He chuckled and leaned in closer to the girl's ear. "There are some bad people after the three of us that want to hurt us. So we're hiding."

"Why would someone want to hurt you?" she asked.

"You'll learn that you make a lot of enemies in life, Conley," he informed her.

"Why don't you come with us then?" she asked.

"I couldn't do that," he said.

"Sure you could," she pressed. "We only stay in one place for a couple days. We perform. They give us food and shelter and it's like a family. Mr. Jack always needs more people." Before he got the chance to say anything else, Conley continued. "They'll never now you're part of the circus. You'll be wearing masks and stuff."

xXx

And from that day on, Sensei and his two friends had been a part of the Haly International Traveling Circus. They had joined in on Conley's act with the Russian bar.

After a couple of years, Sensei told Conley to stop calling him Sensei, despite the fact that he took up training her again, and was also the choreographer for her moves on the bar. He informed her of his real name, not the name he went by in Basil, Minnesota. However, he was going by Cameron and his two friends were going by Harry and Tom to protect their identities. The only people who knew their true identities were Conley and Elliot.

Cam choreographed all of the martial arts and gymnast things that the circus did, but he didn't perform any of them himself. Usually it was Conley, Harry and Tom. When performing martial arts things, they all did it, but when it was the Russian Bar, the two men held the bar while Conley was the one doing the tricks.

And that was where Conley was in the winter of 2015. The Haly's International Traveling Circus was back home, touring the United States. It was the first time in many years that it had gone back to the US. And for the three shows that they had already done, they were getting amazing turn outs.

The fifteen year old girl jumped off of the bar, sticking her landing for the finale. She bowed and then motioned to Harry and Tom who were standing behind her. They too bowed before the three of them made their leave hearing Jack say, "And that was our very own Mixt Trio!"

Once out of the performing area of the tent, Conley grabbed a bottle of water and went into the make-up area, followed by her two partners. "Great job, guys," she complimented. She started to was off the make-up on her face. It was water proof so it wouldn't come off when she sweat, so she had to wash it off with special remover. She didn't have a lot of time to fix it though; she was supposed to go outside in the open area where all the games and animals were to do contortion things on a podium.

"You need to keep your arms in tighter for that last flip," Cam told her, coming up from behind. She could see him in the mirror as she finished up her make-up.

"Okay," she said with a big smile. "I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong." She stood up and turned towards the door. "I'll see you guys later!"

"Great show, Conley!" Cam called out to her as she ran out. Once she was out, he shook his head and smile. "So much energy. When you guys get cleaned up, why don't we go out and watch the girl in her solo act?"

As the girl rounded the corner to go to the more populated area of the circus layout, she almost ran right into a young man. She was able to turn and roll around him before turning to him and saying, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going."

The woman that stood before her stared at the younger teenager. Conley was kind of uncomfortable with the attention. It was a different kind of attention that she was used to and she wasn't completely fond of the feeling she was getting from it. She felt as if she was being analyzed and studied.

The young woman had long brown hair, pale green eyes that analyzed not only Conley, but everything around them. She was taller than Conley, but she wasn't any taller than an average woman her age. She had to be in her early twenties. Her skin was pale, but had a red tint to her cheeks due to the chilly November air. However, she wasn't really wearing the proper attire for the weather they were experiencing in Rhode Island. She had a light jacket on, with jeans.

The woman seemed very familiar to Conley, though she couldn't place where she had seen or met her before. It was probably just her imagination. She had seem many people with brown hair and green eyes. She had met a lot of pretty girls with that description. Maybe that was why she was getting the feeling she had seen her before.

"Are you lost?" the young girl asked.

"Are you Conley? Conley Corporal?" the young woman asked, her eyes bearing into Conley's blue eyes.

"Yes, may I help you?" Conley asked.

"Hey, Conley! Shouldn't you be on your way to-" a male voice said, getting louder as it got closer. They stopped talking once they saw the two girls outside the tent though.

Two males stopped and stared for a moment. Conley turned around and looked at Harry and Tom. They seemed to know the woman before them, but Conley had no idea who she was, or how everybody knew one another.

"Guy?" Conley asked. "It's not polite to stare."

"Cody?" Harry asked, his voice sounding very small.

"Hello, Hector, Tony," "Cody" greeted, a small, nervous smile on her lips. "Why don't we take this somewhere private?"

_Okay, they know her, and she knows their real names_, Conley thought. _Who the heck is this girl?_

"Come inside," Hector said. They entered the tent. "Carson's gonna flip."

"Carson's here?" Cody asked. Her face paled, her eyes lit up, but were also filled with worry.

"Well, yeah," Hector answered. "Why wouldn't he be?"

Cody shook her head. "We'll talk about it when we're in private," she answered.

_So, Cody's just as secretive as them_, Conley thought.

They went into the dressing area where Conley had just come out of and sat down. Cody stood by the entrance, her arms crossed over her chest as she made sure nobody was outside. It took a moment before Cam and Elliot, who had gotten there when the rest were gone, to realize that there was another person with them. Conley sat next to Elliot, while Harry and Tom sat across from them at the other vanity.

"Shouldn't you be outside performing, Con-" Cam started to ask as he turned around. He stopped when he recognized the girl. "Cody?" He lunged forward and embraced the younger girl.

Cody looked realized when she had a hold of him. "Carson," she said breathlessly. "Oh my God, you're alive! I thought you were dead!"

"Who is she?" Elliot asked Conley.

"I have no idea," Conley answered, leaning closer to him as they whispered. "But this is interesting."

"Got that right," he said. "She knows his real name."

"She knew my name too," Conley added.

"She did?" he asked, shocked.

"Yeah, nobody _ever_ knows my name."

They, apparently, hadn't been talking as quietly as they thought they had been. Although, everyone in the room, with the exception of Elliot, had trained ears. Everybody knew what they two youngest people in the tent were saying.

"Conley, Elliot," Carson said, getting them to look at him. "This is my sister, Cody."

"You have a sister, Sensei?" Conley asked.

Cody laughed. "It's really weird hearing someone call you that."

"I told you to stop calling me that," he laughed. He turned to Cody and said, "I told her to stop calling me that."

"So, what are you doing here, Cody?" Harry asked.

"Not that it's good to see you, it is, but usually when we do, something bad is about to happen," Tom added.

Cody cleared her throat and moved away from her brother and looked out the door again. Conley realized that Cody was a very paranoid person. That and she had a lot of secrets, along with the rest of the older people in the tent with her and Elliot.

"Have you told them everything?" Cody asked Cam.

"A lot, but not all," he answered.

"Can I tell them everything?" she asked. She got a nod before she went on. "When we were younger, Carson, Tony, Hector and I used to train with a man we know as Master. We were trained to be assassins. A long story short, Carson got away after finding out that's why we were training and left, angry and disappointed in me."

_I'm going to have to remember to call them by their real names_, Conley thought.

"She didn't know it though," Tony defended for her. "We only continued because we were scared for our lives."

"Right," Carson said. "That was when I went to Minnesota and started to work there. That's where I met you, Conley." Carson turned to Cody and said, "Conley's that girl I told you about, remember?"

"Really?" Cody asked. She looked at Conley and said, "He talked very highly of," she informed her. "You must be a very good student."

"Too good," Carson said.

"_Devoted_," Conley corrected.

"Anyways, I stayed with them to find out why Carson left. I ended up finding out and they tried to kill me because of it," Cody said. "They killed our parents. I got away, but ended up surviving with amnesia."

"Oh, you poor thing," Elliot said.

"I ended up taking over our family's company secretly," she continued after giving Elliot a small smile. "I started to remember things slowly. Eventually I remembered and joined the "Sidekick" team, though really we don't like being called that."

"I was then found by them," Carson said. "That was when I left Minnesota. I was forced to work for them."

"Eventually, I got the three of them out and save in England. Or so I thought. I tried to contact you guys a couple times, but I never got an answer."

"We had to run. They were close to finding us. I tried to contact you back, but never got a response," Carson said. "But that was about the time we ran into you in, Conley. Cody, we've been hiding since then."

"That's because I was kidnapped by them. I've been stuck with them for almost five years," she told them.

"That's present tense," Tony acknowledged.

Cody sighed and nodded her head. "Right," she admitted.

"Cody!" Hector scolded.

"Listen," Cody said. "What I'm about to tell all of you can't leave here. And you have to trust me. Understood?"

"I don't know," Elliot said. "I don't know you. I know them."

"Carson," Conley said, using her teacher's real name. "What do you say? I say, that what you say, is what I say."

"I trust her with my life," Carson admitted.

"Okay," Conley said, turning to Cody with a smile.

"If Conley says okay, I guess I do too," Elliot said.

"When they first took me in, they tortured me. After a while, they experimented on me, like they did with the rest of the guys." The girl raised her hand and snapped her fingers. A flame appeared as if her fingers were a lighter. "I'm Pyrokinetic now. By that time, it had already been about two years. I stayed with them so I could get my powers under control and to try and to gain their trust. That way, I can feed my old team intel."

"So, you're a spy?" Elliot asked. "007?"

"My project name is P-07," she huffed. "Anyway, that's kind of why I'm here."

Conley's blood ran cold. "Wait," the youngest said. "Is that how you knew my name?"

Cody looked at the girl with sad eyes and nodded. "Our assignment is to capture you so you become the next."

"What?" Elliot yelled, jumping up.

"Calm down, Elliot," Carson said. "Let her explain."

Conley was terrified. She didn't want to go anywhere. She was happy where she was. She liked being who she was. There was no way she was going to go with them.

"Listen," Cody said. She walked over to the young girl and knelt before her. "I'm not going to let what happened to me, happen to you. Got it?"

Conley slowly nodded her head.

"You're brother's here," Cody admitted.

It was Conley's turn to jump up and yell, "What?" Fear surged through her. Never in the years she had been away had she been so scared. "Rich? He's here? No, no, no. You can't let him get me. Please! I beg you!"

"Conley," Carson hushed. "Calm down. It's okay. Look at me, breathe."

Conley was starting to hyperventilate. Carson sat next to her and breathed with her, calming her down a little. However, the tears kept falling down her face. She was still cared, but she had Carson there with her.

"The thing is, I need your help, Conley," Cody admitted. "I have a plan, but I can only follow through with it if you agree. Otherwise, the work I've been doing all these year would have been for nothing. Please, hear me out."

Every looked at the blue eyed girl. She was staring into the green eyes of the woman before her, trying to see if she was telling the truth or not. "Okay, go on."

"I have to take you with me," Cody said. "But listen! Once we get you there, I'm going to give you a flash drive and a detailed plan for your escape. Once you escape, you'll take the information to someone on my old team." Cody paused. She seemed hesitant with what she was going to say. "Have you ever considered becoming a hero?"

Honestly, no, she hadn't. Performing at the circus had been the only thing she had ever really done, other than training, but she never really thought about using any of that. She always saw training as a way to become a better performer. But, she couldn't lie and say that the thought, now that it was brought up to her, didn't seem appealing.

The thought of being able to help people with what she could do sounded nice. Making a difference in lives, sounded wonderful. But was she good enough? Strong enough? There were so many questions that Conley needed answered, but she had to ask one specific one first. "Why?"

"In order for the plan to completely work, you'd have to leave the circus. After you escape, you'll go to an old friend of mine, like I said, but you'll give them a proposition. You'll become a hero, go on missions with them. One said missions, if it involves Master and us; I'll be there to slip you information. You'll then give the information to the team. You'll be the middleman, so to speak."

"And if I say no?"

"Then," Cody sighed. "I'm out of luck. I'll be punished for not retrieving you, but I'll live and you'll get away with these guys. You'll, hopefully, never have to see me again."

"What if she agrees?" Carson asked. "What about us?"

"I can give you the location of some friends of mine," Cody said. "You can figure out some things from there." Cody stood up and said, "Carson, they're not looking for you anymore. They have no need, no desire to have you guys back. If you were to come back out publically, they wouldn't come after you."

"What are you getting at, Cody?" Carson asked.

"You can take the company over," Cody said. "You can come out of hiding. You can do whatever you want."

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

_If I do it, Carson can finally be free to do what he wants? Hector will be free to go out and party like he wants? Tony can go back to England to the girl he fell in love with? They don't have to hide because of the past anymore? They don't have to stay with Elliot and I anymore?_ It wasn't that didn't want them around. She did. But if she could do something to make them happy. To _free_ them, she was going to do it. They had been a family to her. It was the only way she could repay them for how loved they made her feel.

"Okay," she said. "I'll do it."

"You will?" everyone in the room asked.

"Yes," she answered. "We have a lot to talk about, but yes. I'll do it."

"Are you sure about this, Conley?" Carson asked. "You don't have to."

"He's right," Cody said. "You can do whatever you want."

"No," protested. "I-I _want_ to do this."

"All right," Cody said. "Let's get down to business, shall we?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
>Instruction<p>

There was are large pain in her neck. That was the first thing the girl really thought about when she started to regain consciousness. The second thing she noticed was the hard slab of wood that she woke up on. Her bed on the train wasn't made of food, it wasn't much of an improvement, but it was more comfortable than that.

That caught her attention. The girl instantly shot up and looked around at her surroundings. She was in a small cell. There were three completely solid concrete walls while the last bared, like a prison cell that people would see in movies. They were rusted and looked rather warn for wear, but still sturdy. She was laying on a wooden bench and over on one of the walls was a small sink and a toilet.

How had she gotten there? Last she knew, she had been talking to Carson, Elliot, Hector and Tony in the dressing room. No, there had been somebody else with them too. A pretty woman. Someone that looked like Carson.

Cody! It was Carson's sister.

Cody had gone to warn her that Rich, Conley's older brother, and the people he was working for were after her. She went there to see if Conley would be her handoff for information she extracted from the inside. She was offering to help Conley become a hero, to help people, to get Carson and the guys a new life, one that _they_ could choice on their own.

It was an offer that Conley couldn't refuse.

And _that_ was why Conley was so sore. Cody had knocked her out and brought her there…Wherever _there_ was.

_Did she have to do it so hard though?_ Conley thought.

"It's about time you woke up," a female voice said, making her jump.

Conley quickly looked outside of the cell to see Cody standing there with her arms crossed against her chest, her head tilted slightly to the side as she watched Conley like prey. Despite how much like a predator Cody looked, Conley was glad it was her and nobody else, namely her brother.

"Oh my God," Conley started to say with a sigh of relief. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Yo should be scared," Cody retorted. "It keeps you on your toes."

_Okay then_, Conley thought with an eyebrow raised. _Why is she being so cold? She was fine when she was talking to me and the guys earlier. What's changed?_

Before Conley could think or say anything else, Cody pulled out a set of keys and opened the door to Conley's cell. She stormed into the cell and grabbed onto her arm, dragging her off of the bench and out into the hallway, leaving the door open.

"Where are you taking me?" Conley asked, her voice sounding smaller than she had hoped it would come out sounding. Yes, she had trusted Conley because of Carson, but had that been the right decision? People changed all the time, could she have gone bad over the years?

_No, Carson would have been able to tell, right?_ Conley thought. Conley didn't let that thought slip. There was always a possibility, but she was choosing to believe in Cody. After all, there was just something about Cody that made Conley want to trust her, despite how much she was hurting her arm.

"Cody, you're hurting my arm," she whined.

The woman's grasp on her arm lightened up, but she didn't let her go, nor did she even falter in her fast paced walk through the maze of hallways and cells. Even when they came to a massive, rusted metal door, they didn't slow down. Beyond the incredibly big door was a stairwell. They went up several flights before Cody took her through a door and down even more hallways.

Conley almost kept walking when Cody suddenly jerked her backwards and shoved her into a room, before almost slamming it shut and bolting the lock from the inside. The blue eyed girl almost stumbled onto her face on the floor, but she quickly regained her footing. Fast reflections were her specialty, after all.

The room they were in was some sort of lab. There were several desks and work benches in the sterile white tiled floored, white painted walled room. There were test tubes and microscopes, as well as large machines that Conley knew nothing about except that they looked rather expensive. There were even a couple cages with rats in them, but they were in the far corner of the room.

Cody and Conley weren't the only ones in the room either. There was a man tall, much taller than Cody and Conley. He was extremely skinny, leaving the girl to believe that he had a fast metabolism. His dirty-blonde hair was messy, sticking up in several directions. It looked like he ran his hands through it a lot. His hazel eyes looked at the girl as he walked over to the young girl, needle in one hand.

Conley gulped seeing the needle. Give her bees; give her snakes or spiders, just not _needles_. There was just something about them, the prickling sensation when it went into her arm that made her feel sick whenever she even thought about the things.

"Why are we here?" Conley finally asked, still staring at the needle.

"This is Lucas," Cody said, not answering the girl's question.

Lucas stuck his free hand out to Conley, but Conley took several steps backwards, away from the little thing in his hand. "Oh," he said, realizing how uncomfortable she was. "My apologies." He set the needle on the table and turned back to the girl, hand stretched out once more. "I'm Dr. Lucia. I'm the head scientist here. I work with Cody. Very closely, in fact."

_So she brought me to the head nutcase of the joint?_ Conley thought. _Just great!_

"Conley, Lucas is a friend," Cody said, adding to what the good doctor was getting at. "We're working together. He gives me the information that I eventually hand over to the other side. The information I'm going to be giving _you_ comes from _him_."

"Oh," Conley sighed, relaxing slight. _So that's what they were getting at. This must be a safe meeting place_. "I thought he was going to stick me with that needle."

"Oh, I am," he corrected. "I do need to take some blood to make it look like there's an actual purpose for you to be in here, but it's only a little. You'll barely feel a thing."

Shifting from one foot to the other, Conley whined, "I _hate_ needles."

"You'll have to deal with worse things than needles," Cody said, moving to the far corner of the room. She looked as if she needed to survey the whole place in case there was an emergency. She, once again, leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I know," Conley insisted. "I'm fine with knives and guns and stuff, just not needles. They give me the creeps." For Pete's sake, she had been a part of an act at the circus where she was strapped to a spinning wheel with a man throwing knives at her, at one point in her career. They _didn't_ scare her. Just needles.

Lucas opened his arm in one direction, showing the girl an examination table. She went over to it and hopped to have a seat. As he prepared to take blood from the girl, he started to talk in hopes of distracting her from the action he was taking.

It didn't work. She knew he was taking blood, but it was a kind gesture.

"I'm that way with spiders," Lucas said. "And heights. And guns. And knives. Oh, and peacocks. Their tails always seem to look like they're watching you. Oh, and children. I don't like children. They're always sticky. Peaches aren't right either. I mean, why are the fuzzy? It's just not _natu_-"

"_Lucas_," Cody interrupted the man's ramble.

"Right, sorry," he said. He was done taking the girl's blood. He held up the glass container on the end of the syringe and looked at it through the light before putting it on the table to bandage the small hole in the girl's arm. "There we go," he said when he was done. "All set."

"Now to get down to business," Cody said. She finally looked as if she was getting to do the thing she had wanted to do all along. "We have a lot to talk about and a short amount og time to get it said."

"Right," Conley said, finally realizing this was the moment they'd be coming up with her plan for escape.

"You're going to break out tonight," Cody told her.

"That soon?" Conley asked. That was unexpected information. She figured she'd be there at least a day or so before anything was done.

"Master wants us to start the tests tomorrow morning," Lucas put in as he multitasked. He was completely the form on a little clipboard next to a microscope that had Conley's blood under it. "So it's either tonight or never."

"Tonight it is," Conley said. _Because I'm definitely not choosing never_. "So, what's the plan to prevent me from being a lab rat?" She glanced over at the little caged rats in the corner of the room thinking, _I don't want to know how they feel. Though, I'm sure Cody already does_.

"You weren't the lab rat," Lucas started to say. "Tha-"

"Irrelevant," Cody told Lucas.

"Right," he responded, continuing on with is work.

"Conley, there's a lot that we have to go over. You're going to have to remember it all. Can you try and do that for me?"

_She's talking down to me as if I'm a small child,_ Conley thought. She didn't like it, but she kind of understood. The situation was a serious one. There was no time to dilly dally. "Yeah, I'm going to have to if I want to get out of here."

"She has a point," Lucas muttered.

Cody huffed. "Guys," she said, trying to get them back on task. "Focus."

"Right!" Conley said at the same time as Lucas, which made her smirk slightly. She tried to hide it so Cody wouldn't see it though.

Cody left her comfortable spot against the wall and walked over to the blue eyes girl. "The door to the cell has half pin barreled hinges," she said.

_Am I supposed to know what that means?_

"If you use the bench, you'll be able to unhinge it," she continued.

_That makes more sense_, Conley thought.

Cody pulled off her wrist watch and put it on the girl's wrist as she explained, "There's a shift change at ten o' clock tonight. That's when you'll make your escape."

"But I don't know the way out of here," Conley said, pointing out a flaw in the plan, or so she thought.

"When we go back down to the cells, pay attention to the hallways," Cody said, going back to leaning against the wall again.

_You make it sound so simple_, Conley thought. _That place is a labyrinth!_ "But what about when I get out of there?" Conley asked. _I could get lost and the only thing they'd ever find of me is my skeleton! _

"That's the tricky part," Cody said. "Once you get to the stairwell, make your way up to the seventh floor. There's a duct right above the door. You'll have to unhinge the grate and crawl through it."

_Sounds dirty_. "I don't have anything to use as a screw driver," Conley admitted.

Conley jumped when she heard Lucas bang his kneed on the bottom of the lab bench he was sitting at when he jumped up and out of his seat. It looked like that was something he normally did, seeing as he didn't complain. "I've got that covered," he said, walking over to a cabinet. Eventually, after several minutes of rummaging, he walked over to the short haired brunette and handed her a little screw driver that he had found.

Conley looked at the screw driver for a moment. It was only about two inches long, easy enough to hide on her person, away from the cameras when Cody had to bring her back down to the cell. She slipped it under her shirt and it her bra, seeing as she didn't have any pockets in the skin tight spandex costume she had on. "Thanks," she said with a small smile on her face. She was finding Lucas to be rather amusing.

"Now, you're really going to have to remember the directions through the vents," Cody said. "Once you're in, you'll have to take the first left you see. Continue down that passage until you get to the fourth right. Go all the way down that passage. At the end there'll be a shaft above your head. You're going to have to go straight up it until you hit the roof. When you get there, you're out. You just have to make sure you stay hidden so we don't find you when they send us to search."

_Okay, that sounds simpler than finding my way out of the labyrinth_, Conley thought.

"Oh, and you have to do all that in fifteen minutes," Lucas added.

"Right," Cody said, as if it was very simple.

"_What_?" Conley almost yelled. _Are they out of their minds?_ "I only have _fifteen minutes_? I can barely find my way around one end of the circus to the other in that amount of time, and we've been setting it up the same way for all the years I've been in it!" _How do they expect me to do _all _of that in that amount of time_?

"You're going to have to if you want to get out before they close the ventilations system," Cody said. "It'll be fifteen minutes before the new guard on shift notices that you're not there."

"Oh, this'll be fun, I can just tell," Conley grumbled.

"You're not done after that, though," Cody added.

"Oh _yay_, more work," she sighed with a roll of her eyes.

"Boy, aren't you a ball of sarcasm," Lucas chuckled, turning in his seat to look over at Cody. "She's more of a handful than you, Cody." His tone was joking and friendly.

"I'm not a handful," Cody protested. "Now, can we please get back to business?"

"Is she always this serious?" Conley asked the scientist.

"She hadn't always been," he answered.

"I am standing right here, you know," Cody said.

Conley ignored that. Cody needed to relax a little. Sure, Conley was stressed about the whole situation too, but if she took it all too seriously, she'd freak herself out and fail. She need to take things one step at a time. If she did that, she'd be fine. That was just the way she worked though.

"She used to be a lot more fun," Lucas said. ""They had me observing video of her before they actually captured he and she was a lot more easy going. Now she's all work and no play."

"_Enough!_" Cody snapped, making Conley and Lucas jump. With a glare, she went on, "Is this a joke to you two? If this doesn't go down as planned, they won't just kill _me_, Conley. They'll kill Lucas _and_ you. Do you understand that?"

Conley knew it was serious, and obviously she knew these people were assassins. The dangers were all too real to her. It was just the way she saw it, maybe just that's too much to have in your head when you have to win. Maybe if she pretends everything was a big joke, when the time came, she'd be able to do what she had to do. Obviously things didn't run that way in Cody's head, which when she snapped at the young girl, it made her feel incredibly bad. Cody didn't realize how she dealt with things and was trying to make her see them how she saw them, which, if anybody asked Conley, was rather downing.

"Yeah, sorry," she said.

Cody sighed as she walked over to Conley. She knelt down in front of her, placing a hand on her knee. "Look, Conley," she said. "I'm sorry. There's just a lot going on right now, okay? We have to get through this so the next stage of the plan can go into effect. The sooner we have this done, the sooner you can get out of here and to a safer place.

"We just have to focus for five more minutes, okay?" Cody asked.

"Yeah," Conley said, looking at the green eyes woman with a nod.

"Okay," Cody said. She remained in the kneeling position before Conley, but removed her hand from the blue eyed girl's leg. "Can you relay the directions in the vent for me?"

_Okay, it was first left, fifth right. No, that wasn't it._ "Take the first left. Fourth right. All the way down and then up and out."

Cody smiled, which Conley hadn't seen her do since she had been with Carson. "That's my girl," she said. "Once you're out and you know the coast is clear, I need you to make your way to Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. Carson and Elliot are going to be staying there with a friend of mine, we've already talked about it."

Conley couldn't recall her ever making that deal with Carson and Elliot, but she assumed that had happened after she was unconscious. "Where am I meeting them?"

"There's this little place, _Alimentation Meilleures Villes_. The friend I was talking about, Mark, works there. That's where you'll be meeting up and from there, once you meet up with him, he's going to take the two of you to New York City."

"Why not just have us meet there?" Conley asked.

"That way you guys are kept on the move," Cody answered. "Once in New York, I think Carson's going to talk to Wendy Wright and try to take over Conwell Enterprise. But that's what he's going. What _you're_ to do is to," she turned around and grabbed a little sticky note and pen off the desk and scribbled down something, "this place. There's an old broken photo booth. I want you to go inside it and say," she scribbled again, "'Override H-0-J, Mount Justice, Priority Red! Authorizations, Phoenix. New Designation, Omega. Initiate Erasing Procedure 2-9-A.'"

Conley took the note from the woman and read it over once more.

"Don't lose that," Lucas said. "That's one of the most important things."

"What does 'New Designation, Omega' mean?" Conley asked, looking down at the paper.

"Well, we're calling you Project-Omega," Lucas said. "We're making sure you're the last person to be taken for this. Hence, Omega. Anything after that, I'm out of the dark."

"I needed to put in a name for the zeta-tubes, for the overriding sequence. Omega's just the first thing I thought of. You can come up with a better superhero name after if you want. This is just to get you to the Cave."

"And where's the 'Cave?'"

"It's Mount Justice, where the Team operates out of," Cody answered.

_I wonder if she'd get in trouble if they ever found out she was telling me this_, Conley wondered.

As Conley thought that, she watched Cody walked back over to her "comfy" corner to a desk that was located there. She pulled out a set of keys, the same set that opened her cell, and used it on one of the drawers. She walked back over to Conley after taking something out. She held it out to Conley to take. Once it was in her hands, Conley could see it was a flash drive.

"You're going to be stirring up a lot of commotion, showing up there. Once you're through the zeta-tube, walk out slowly with you hands up. Tell them you don't mean them any harm, that you're there to help. You know, anything so they don't attack you."

"Anything except mention Cody," Lucas added.

"Exactly," Cody agreed.

"Why?" Conley asked.

"Because they think I'm dead and I won't want them to come looking for me," she explained.

"But they could get you out, right?" Conley asked. "Don't you think they'd want to know you're alive?"

"Yes, but right now, that's not what they need. They need this information more than knowing I'm alive. I can't let these past few years go to waste."

Conley could see Cody wanted nothing more than to go home to her friend and fight against the people she was currently with, but she couldn't. It was sad. Someone as good as Cody deserved to so whatever she wanted, to be happy. Life was just cruel. It liked to give good people bad breaks. Conley had seen that a lot, despite only being fifteen.

"So, what after that?" Conley asked.

"You're going to tell them I sent you," Lucas answered. "Tell them I knew Phoenix and that there's information on master and the assassins on the flash drive. If they don't believe you, tell them to look for themselves."

"So I can drop Cody's name then?"

"It's complicated," Cody said. "Just so it that way and you'll be fine."

"Is that it?" Conley asked. _There are so many rules!_

"That's it," Cody answered. "Everything after hat had to be planned out by their side. If it goes according to plan, they'll tae you in and make you a member of the team. From there you'll go on missions and I'll hand off information to you."

"How long is that going to go on for?" Conley asked. "I mean, I don't care how long it takes, I'm in this for the long haul, but you're going to be stuck here with these people."

"As long as it takes until we manage to get every since one of the people here, excluding Lucas, into prison," Cody answered. Cody could see a darkness in Cody's eyes that she had never seen before. There was so much built up anger for these people. It wasn't healthy.

Though Conley couldn't judge. She felt that way about her brother and her mother.

"And you're okay with that?" Conley asked.

"I have to be," she answered, not looking at the girl.

"That's it?" Conley asked once more.

"That's it," Cody repeated.

"Okay," she said. "We can do this. I can do this." She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. She supposed she was.

"You can do this," Cody insisted. "It's not too hard."

"Oh, no, of course it isn't," Conley said, rolling her eyes. "It's not like I have a tight time frame in which it all has to be done, while I try and hide from assassins, then try to convince super-powered people that I'm not actually breaking into their secret HQ, and that I'm on their side with valuable information from a scientist on the bad side, while in truth I'm lying about who's giving them the information."

"Right, you'll be fine," Lucas said, not catching her sarcasm.

"Come on, I have to get you back downstairs," Cody said.

Conley put the flash drive into her shirt, right next to the screw driver before hopping off the table. She walked over to the door and met Cody there. She grabbed her arm once the door was opened and pulled her back down the stairs. Once they got to the bottom, Conley straightened her poster, and paid more attention to the route they were taking.

_Into the door. Take a left. Down three, take a right. Down seven. Take another right. Down one, take left. Straight for three, then a left. Straight for two, then around the curved hallway. Straight again for three. _

They had gotten to the cell. Conley was shoved back into the cell, almost stumbling again, this time because she was trying to convert the directions for the opposite way to leave, instead of heading towards the cell.

_Okay, Conley thought. I can do this. It was straight for three. Around the curve. Two straight, take a right, down three. Take a right, down one. Take a left, down seven. Take a left, down three, take a right and I'll be at the door. _

_ Or was it down four and left to the door?_

Conley plopped down on her bench and looked down at the watch. She had about twenty minutes before she had to try and break out. She hadn't realized she spent so much time in the lab with Lucas and Cody. The girl laid back on the bench and rubbed her eyes.

_I'm screwed. _


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Misdirection

_Okay,_ Conley thought, looking down at the watch Cody had given her. _Here we go_. She got up and walked up to the bars, looked both ways just to check and make sure nobody was in the hallway before she walked back to the back of cell.

Conley bent down and grabbed onto the bench, getting ready to lift the bench. What do they tell you to use when lifting heavy things? Is it back or knees? Conley just put that thought in the back of her mind though. She didn't have time to think about that. Conley lifted the bench up and nearly dropped to her knees_. Oh my God, I need to work on my arm strength. _

Despite how heavy the bench was, Conley managed to lift it up and turn it over so that the legs could hook into the bars of the door. Taking in a deep breath, the girl jumped up onto the bench, putting all of her weight onto it to dislodge the door. A loud bang admitted from it as it fell off of the hinges. Conley pulled it back and out of the way to exit thinking_, I can't believe that worked. _

Once in the hall, Conley made her way down the hall. She passed three other halls meeting with the one she was in. Once she made it to the third, she went around with funky, out of place curve. She remembered that little direction perfect because it was so different from the rest of the other things she had to remember. Everything after that was the difficult part.

The girl headed straight after the curve. She passed one hallway and looked both way. _No, I go straight_. She jogged several steps, passing another hallway before taking a right. The girl stood there for a moment, looking down the hallways.  
>The hallways was so long. Each and every hall she had gone down looked exactly the same. She took in a deep breath and continued to jog down. <em>One<em>, Conley thought. _Two, three. I turn right, right? Yeah, it's a right._

Conley continued down, passing one hallway, two hallways, then three. _Oh, crap. That was only supposed to be one!_ She ran back two halls and took a left, seeing as she was going the opposite way and had originally been supposed to take a right, going from the cells to the door.

_Okay, now I take a left_. She turned and went straight. _This one's a long one. I go for seven hallways before I take a left_. By this time, Conley was running. She had already wasted three minutes. She couldn't waste anymore time. She had to get out of that freaking maze, otherwise she was going to drive herself crazy _and_ get lost.

Conley took the left and went down three. She knew she had to go down three, but that was where the directions started to blend together. She was so close, she knew it. But she couldn't figure out if she was supposed to take a right or a left. _Ah, left,_ Conley finally decided. The girl bolted down the hallways and ended up at a dead end. _Okay, not left_. She ran back and took the right.

When Conley reached for the door, she put her hands out to push it open, but didn't expect it to be as heave as it was, so she ended up ramming right into it, hitting her head on it. The girl rolled on the ground for a moment before finally getting up to her feet. _Dude, that hurt! _Conley put her hand to her head to see if it was bleed. It wasn't, but she knew there was going to be a bruise. She shook it off though, and pushed the heavy door open.

_Okay, I have ten minutes to get into the vents and out_, Conley thought, looking down at her watch. Running up the seven flights of stairs was easier than she thought. She was up on the seventh level before she knew it.

_Oh crap_, Conley thought, looking up at the vent. Since it was above the door, it was rather high up. She couldn't stand on her tip toes to unscrew the cover and there wasn't anything around to stand on. _Well, this part of the plan wasn't very thought out_.

_Oh, screw it_, Conley thought. She took several steps back, not breaking eye contact with the vent before running forward, using the door and the wall and leverage to boost herself up and grab the vent. The slots were big enough for her to slip her fingers in and grab a hold of it. She figured it was worth a shot to just pull it off first, instead of wasting time to unscrew it if it was possible to just pull it off.

Conley used her legs to push off the wall, pulling the grate off. To her surprise, it worked! Conley managed to flip backwards and land on her feet, grate still in hand. She stuffed it between the railing of the stairs and the stairs, hoping nobody would see it before jumping up once more. She pulled herself into the vent and slowly crawled to the first left.

_It's a good thing I'm small_, Conley thought as she went continued on after the turn. She had already passed two other passages. She had two more to go. _If I was any bigger, I wouldn't fit._ The girl could barely fit in there to begin with.

The girl got to the fourth right and took it. All she had to do now was go all the way down that passage and then up and out. Simple as that. It took her a little longer to get down that stretch than she thought, but that was because the vents were much smaller than she had thought.

When she got to the vertical part of the vent, Conley was relieved to see that it was much larger than the rest of the ventilation system. She figured it was to get as much air into the facility as possible. She didn't really care though. As long as it allowed her to climb up it easier, that was all she cared about.

Putting a hand on one wall and the other on the opposite, Conley lifted herself up. She used her feet to steady herself and then push up before moving her arms higher. She repeated that until she was at the very top. The top had a small capped vent. It wasn't bolted on tightly, so it was easy for Conley to lift off and pull herself out.

Out on the roof, Conley glanced at the watch. _Hm, three minutes to spare. I guess that wasn't too horrible,_ she thought. The girl quickly ran from her position by the vent to the edge of the building. She looked down to see another building two storied down. It wasn't anything she couldn't handle.

The girl jumped off the side, doing several flips as she made her decent. She couldn't help herself. She was an acrobat. It made her feel a little better and in control of the situation to do so. A little familiarity.

The girl made her way across rooftops for several minutes. Seven, to be exact. Conley knew the assassins would be out looking for her now. She had to find a place to hid. Cody told her to keep out of sight.

Conley jumped off of the roof and down into an alley. Below her was a very large dumpster. It was wedged between two adjacent walls. If she moved it out slightly, she could hide in the corner with the dumpster for cover. It was a perfect hiding place, Conley thought. She'd assume that the assassins would think it was too obvious of a place for her to hide outside. They'd look in more populated places.

The dumpster was a lot heavier than she thought. It was a lot heavier than the large metal door to the cells in the facility. However, she managed to push it just enough for her to squeeze in. It was a good thing she wasn't claustrophobic, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to make it through the night at all. She would have been doomed to become one of the assassins, in the hands of her deranged brother.

Conley refused to look at the watch as she sat there. She feared that she had only been there a couple minutes when it felt like hours. She as getting unbelievably bored, but she had no idea what to do. She couldn't really do anything, in fear of getting the attention of the assassins, if they were anywhere in the area. Plus, she couldn't really _think_ of anything to do anyways.

Bored out of her mind the girl's head fell back on the dumpster, which wasn't a great idea since she had already hit her head earlier in her escape. Doing this made a soft bang, causing a cat in the alley, that Conley hadn't been aware of, screech out and bolt. The girl shut her eyes tightly, fearing that someone had heard that.

_That definitely wasn't my brightest idea_, Conley thought. Before Conley could continue on with that though, a hand was placed over her mouth. She went to scream, but someone's familiar hush in her ear.

"Shhh," the woman said. "It's just me." She hesitantly let go of Conley. She ushered them back into Conley's hiding spot so they could still be concealed. That reoccurred Conley that the rest of the assassins were out there looking for her. "Did you get out okay? Not too much trouble?" Cody asked.

Conley shook her head, which wasn't such a great idea. She already had a headache and the sudden movement wasn't helping. She tried her best to ignore it though. "Could have gone better, but I'm out, right?" Conley said, blushing from the memories of her errors in her escape. "How'd you find me?"

"Dumb luck," Cody answered.

That was _not_ what she had expected. Cody was a very skilled, trained assassin ninja. She thought she would have been able to find the littlest of evidence to track the girl. Or, though the thought was rather extreme, found some of her hair or something in the cell and use some ancient ninja magic to track her down.

With a chuckle, Conley said, "I thought you were going to say some ancient ninja voodoo stuff."

"Nonsense," Cody answered. "We don't do voodoo."

"Right, no, that'd be silly," Conley said. _Though I wouldn't be surprised if you did_.

"I have some additional information," Cody finally said.

"Yay, more to remember," Conley mumbled under her breath. Well, she hadn't done too horrible with remember the information from earlier. It could have gone better, but it still was acceptable.

"Erik, Rich and I – they call me Ember, we're bring leased out to an associate of Master. Someone by the name of Manta," Cody said.

_Manta?_ Conley thought. _Like, the Black Manta? Dude, what kind of people are you guys associated with?_ She couldn't have been surprised. _Assassin, right_.

"You'll have to let them know that, okay? I have a feeling it's important."

"Okay, I will," Conley said.

"Good," Cody answered. She glanced down at a new watch on her wrist. It looked exactly like the one she had given Conley. "I have to make my way back to the facility. Just be careful and keep out of sight. I don't think the others will be out much longer, but I'd suggest waiting until the sun comes out to do the majority of your traveling. We don't come out during the day as much as night."

"Good advice," the crystal blue eyes girl said.

"Okay," she said. "I'll see you around, Probie." Cody got up and walked under the first escape. She jumped up and grabbed it and then pulled herself up with ease.

Cody was on her way back to the lions den. She as about to be given away like someone's property. And she was going to have to do so many dangerous things for her goals of aiding her old friend, who all thought she was dead. Conley had to admit that Cody was one of the bravest, ballsy people she had ever met. She was just like her brother, no doubt.

"Cody?" Conley softly called out. Conley could just make out Cody turning around. "Be careful," she told the woman.

"You too, Conley. Don't get yourself into too much trouble." With that, Cody was gone and Conley was completely alone again.

xXx

Being patient was _not_ one of Conley's strong points. She'd have to work on that. Sitting there in that alley was almost more torture than having to wait to make her escape in her cell. It was almost as bad of a feeling as finding out her brother was looking for her when Cody approached her at the circus.

She was stiff from sitting in such a crouched position, with her legs pulled up to her chest and her arms with wrapped around them, or crunched up to her side (she kept getting uncomfortable, so she kept moving them). She was antsy to speak, seeing as she had to remain silent. She was hungry. She hadn't eaten since before she had been taken by Cody. She as tired and her head hurt.

But she wasn't complaining or anything.

When the sun finally rose, Conley moved out from behind the dumpster, feeling relieved that she didn't have to smell the trash anymore. At least she hadn't decided to hide _inside_ the dumpster. It would have given her a better hiding place, but the smell would have been unbelievably rancid. Conley had a strong stomach when it came to gore, but not when it came to bad smells.

She was a weird ninja.

Walking out onto the street, but away from camera, Conley stretched and thought, _Okay, now to figure out a way to get to Happy Harbor_.

xXx

"I don't see what's so happy about this place," Conley muttered looking around the area around her Elliot and Carson.

Conley managed to sneak into the undercarriage of a coach bus all the way to Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. She had almost gotten caught down there too because she fell asleep on the ride. However, while they were turned around, taking luggage out, Conley slipped out and onto the unfamiliar streets.

The brunette stopped and asked a random person on the street for directions and ultimately made her way to the French places Cody had instructed her to go. She was walking down the street, about to go to the front to enter, but before she did, she heard talking around back and one of the voices sounded like Carson's. She decided to take a detour.

"I can't believe she's been alive all these years," the man said. "Why didn't she ever escape? Come home?"

Carson and Elliot were standing in front of him with their bags resting on the ground next to them. "She wanted to protect everyone," Carson said. "that's all she's every really wanted to do."

"Yeah, I guess I knew that," he said. "It's just," he ran his hand through his hair, messing it up, "I can't believe she's been with those horrible people."

"I know," Carson said. "I don't like it either, but I've already explained why to you. She really needs your help with this, Mark. Can you do that for her?"

"For Cody?" he asked. "I'd do anything for the _kid_." It sounded as if there was some inside joke in that. Conley didn't get it, but she guessed it wasn't really any of her business. "So, who is it she wants me to transport besides you two?"

"That would be me," Conley said, finally making her presence known. The tall man had tan skin and very light hair and was very physically in shape. On his left hand was a gold wedding band. He was dressed in a white button down shirt and black dress pants. Over his shirt was a black tie, matching his pants. He looked out of place in the clothes.

"I'm Conley," she greeted, shaking his hand. "You must be Cody's friend. Mark, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "Wow, you kind of look like Cody."

"I know, weird resemblance," Elliot said. "At least their hair's different length and they have different eye color."

"So, where do you guys need to go?" Mark asked.

"New York City," Carson told him. "You'll take us?"

"Of course," he answered. "We can leave now, if you'd like. I can get my wife to cover for me in the restaurant."

"You're married?" Conley asked. _Well duh! I saw his wedding ring!_

Mark smirked. "Yeah," he said. He held up his hand, showing off his ring. "We're about to have our first kid too. A girl. We're thinking of naming her Cody."

"You are?" Carson asked.

"Yeah," Mark said. "I met the woman that I married when I was at Cody's fundraiser. If it wasn't for her, I would never have met her. And Cody was like family to me. I wanted to honor her."

"Wow," Elliot said.

"She would be honored," Carson said. "And, if I may, it still would be, even though she's still alive. Cody's risking her life giving inside information to the heroes. She's given up years of her life gaining their trust to do this."

"That does sound like her," Mark said. He turned and looked at the young girl standing next to Carson. "And now you're doing along with it?"

"I guess you could say that," she said. "Though Cody's in more danger than I am."

Mark nodded his head in understanding. "I'm not supposed to say anything about Cody being back, am I?"

"No," Conley answered.

"We should really get moving," Carson said.

"I understand," Mark said. "Just give me a couple minutes." He went in through the back door that Conley could see went into the kitchen.

Carson walked over to her and placed his hand on her head, examining her to make sure she was uninjured. "I take it you make it out safely."

Conley didn't really want to talk about how many times she almost messed up her escape by going in the wrong direction, so she just nodded a yes and changed the subject. "Where's Hector and Tony?" Conley asked.

"They're back in England," Elliot said. "When they found out they could go out in public, they decided that was where they wanted to go."

"Makes sense," Conley said. "From what I hear from them, they really enjoyed their time there."

"Oh, they did," Carson chuckled.

"What are you doing when we get to New York?" Conley asked.

"I'm going to talk to the head of the family business," Carson said. "I'm going to try and take my rightful place as CEO."

"Cody said you might do that," Conley said. "What about you, Elliot?"

He shrugged. "I've got no clue whatsoever!" He laughed before adding, "But I'm not going anywhere. Maybe you can talk to your soon-to-be buddies and get me a place hacking and stuff. Or I could work as head of computer stuff with you, Carson, but Conley's option sounds more exciting. No offence."

"None taken," Carson said. "But I think boring sounds kind of nice with the past couple years I've had."

"I'm glad you can finally have some normalcy, Sensei," Conley said.

"_Carson_," he insisted. "I'm just Carson Conwell, Conley."

"Whatever you say, Sensei."

The door opened once more and Mark walked out, car keys in hand. "All right," he said. "Let's go."


End file.
